The number of non-British citizens living and working in the UK has increased rapidly over the last 20 years, with the proportion of non-British workers in the overall working population rising from four per cent to 11 per cent since December 1997. Although the number of non-British workers from the EU and from outside the EU have both risen over the last two decades, since 2010 the greater increase has been from the EU, as the total worker numbers rose from 1.2 million to 2.2 million over the decade.

Opportunity and diversity are key

What has been the catalyst for this? Clearly, the freedom of movement within the European Single Market has encouraged cross-border migration in search of work. But the UK has changed too: when our survey asked non-British workers in the UK to identify three factors that had initially attracted them to the UK, the answers were informative.

Although ‘job opportunities’ was the most cited factor for both EU and non-EU citizens working in the UK, the second most cited was ‘cultural diversity’, suggesting the UK’s historic openness to migration is considered such a positive value that it drives people to move here.

What first attracted you to the UK?